Mandy (Season 3)

Available on BBC iPlayer

It’s short, sweet, and bloody ridiculous. It’s Mandy, and it’s back for an epic third season.

You might recognise Diane Morgan as playing Philomena Cunk, a TV presenter who asks academics pressing questions such as ‘was Beethoven good at music?’ and ‘how many three wise men were there?’, but she also writes and portrays the endearingly hapless and incompetent character of Mandy Carter.

Season three sees Mandy get into all sorts of escapades, from preventing a plane bombing with her magnetic leg calipers and shooting poison darts at children to defend a protected tree, to housing an endangered bird species in her beehive of a hairdo. And let’s not forget the episode where her nan, who’s been unknowingly living in the attic all this time, orders a murderous baby off the dark web. Morgan’s comedic timing hits the mark in nearly every episode.

Although more surreal and outlandish than season one and two, each episode is still rooted in a sense of mundane reality, as exemplified by Mandy’s recurring appointments at the Job Centre and nail-salon chats with best friend Lola. However, the season ending feels quite dull and unfinished, with most of the episode spent waiting around for something funny to happen. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Still, the latest series of Mandy is a great laugh and perfect for popping on the TV when you’ve got fifteen minutes to spare. Just don’t get too excited for the season finale.